Dec 28, 2017

A whale carcass discovered late Wednesday inside Long Beach Harbor has been identified as fin whale.

The juvenile mammal measured 40 feet and probably was struck by a ship and brought into the harbor – unbeknownst to the crew – attached to the vessel.

“Live fin whales have never been documented inside the harbor, so that’s a likely scenario,” said Alisa Schulman-Janiger, a researcher who was among those inspecting the carcass on Thursday. “But we won’t know until we see the results of the necropsy.”

The carcass remained tied to a West Basin pier to keep it in place. There were no visible wounds to indicate a ship strike, but much of the carcass remained submerged and was not inspected.

Schulman-Janiger, a whale researcher with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, said the whale, which was “freshly dead." The mammal was likely less than 1 year old, but had already been weaned. “So it was not taken from its mom,” the researcher said.